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U. of San Francisco to implement new sexual assault reporting system

The University of San Francisco revealed last week that it will become the first college to implement Callisto, a new online system for reporting campus sexual assault. Developed by the nonprofit organization Sexual Health Innovations , Callisto...

Developed by the nonprofit organization Sexual Health Innovations, Callisto is a third-party reporting system that was designed with input from sexual assault survivors. According to the New York City-based company’s website, Callisto is designed to “provide a more empowering, transparent and confidential reporting experience for college sexual assault survivors, to give schools better data about campus assault and to facilitate the identification of repeat assailants.”

What makes Callisto different from other systems is that its users can report the assault on their own time without feeling the pressure to report to the school or to local police. Callisto allows the person to fill out an incident report, receive an explanation of his or her options and then save the report as a time-stamped record that can be returned to later for submission.

The survivor can also choose to have his or her report automatically submitted to authorities if someone else has reported the same assailant. The end result is that survivors have more time to reflect on their responses and can avoid the pressure from law enforcement or school officials that is known to exacerbate the trauma from the event.

Essentially, one of the main goals of Callisto is to create an online network of survivors in order to reveal and catch repeat offenders. According to Sexual Health Innovation’s website, stopping sexual assault perpetrators after their second assault would mean preventing 60% of sexual assaults.

"Callisto is a trauma-informed process and that means understanding that memories for trauma and issues surrounding the trauma come out at different times," says Peter Novak, vice provost of student life at USF.

Novak says he found out about Callisto and it’s possibilities through Futures Without Violence, a nonprofit in San Francisco. To Novak, USF was a natural fit for Callisto based on its location.

“I believe that, because we are also located in the middle of the largest tech industry in the world, that using technology to help solve complicated issues is very important,” Novak says.

Callisto does more than assist survivors in the reporting process, though. By providing large amounts of data, it also helps institutions shape their procedures for handling sexual assault on campus.

Universities will be able to see “the aggregate number of records stored in their system, the aggregate number of unique sexual assault survivors and assailants, the percentage of those records that have been officially reported and trends in assault and reporting over time,” according to SHI’s website.

“It also allows the institution to extend their reporting options,” Novak says. “Callisto isn’t meant to circumvent or prevent someone from coming in and talking to someone one-on-one. It’s intended to provide yet another tool in our arsenal to prevent and respond to sexual assault.”

USF is set to debut Callisto in the fall, according to Novak.

Trent Crabtree is a student at The University of Oklahoma and a summer 2015 USA TODAY Collegiate Correspondent.

This story originally appeared on the USA TODAY College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.